Editor’s Picks

• Mike Piper from The Oblivious Investor presents Don’t Be a (Motley) Fool.
• Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents Should You Roll Your Pension Into an IRA?.
• Bob from Christian Finances presents 7 free printable budgeting worksheets.
• Wojciech Kulicki from Fiscal Fizzle presents 17 Tips for Recession Job Hunting.
• Madison from My Dollar Plan presents The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption.

Visit My Life ROI for more!

Editor’s Picks

• Free Money Finance presents Working Longer Hours Early in Your Career is a Good Investment. Just like those retirement funds, it’s better to rock it out NOW while you’ve got time on your side rather than later when you’re all old and crotchety.
• Bible Money Matters presents The Best Decision Doesn’t Always Make The Most Financial Sense. This is true! Sometimes you have to make decisions based on your PERSONALITY and what helps you sleep better at night. It may not make the most financial sense, but it might get you to actually DO something about it
• The Happy Rock presents Do We Earn The Right Not To Budget? Blasphemy! haha…actually, he brings up a really question. The whole idea of mastering your money is to gain that financial freedom in the end and to focus your energy in other areas of life. But once you’re on a roll and everything’s going smooth, do you now reward yourself by easing up on that budget?
  
• Christian Finance presents How to make money blogging. Wow. Talk about a guy who REALLY has a passion for this stuff! Not only does Bob give a majorly thorough review from top to bottom, but it’s something every blogger should bookmark (I already have) and then review every few months. This is seriously some great, and *free* btw, content.
• Financial Highway presents Frugal Summer Fun Ideas: Top 10 Summer Activity Ideas for Families and Couples. While some of these literally made me laugh (”Go hunting for bugs or birds”…”You won’t kill them, of course.”) it’s a mighty impressive list Especially if you’re trying to woo anyone in particular right now…I’m pretty sure doing a few of these will earn you some mad creative points.

Head on over to Budgets Are Sexy for more great financial reading.

Editor’s Picks

• MLR from My Life ROI presents Tax Records You Should Save & For How Long. Some people shred too much. Some people file away too much. Either way, both groups are doing it all wrong! A look at how long we actually need to keep those tax documents filed away for!
• Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents Negotiation Tips For Beginners.
• Ray from Financial Highway presents Calculating Retirement Needs- A Step by Step Guide. Calculating savings and retirement needs can be complicated, here is a step-by-step guide to calculating retirement needs. You can download the FREE excel calculator.
• Olivia from MooMama presents 100 Fun, Frugal Things to Do With the Kids.  #28 is my favorite.
• FMF from Free Money Finance presents What I Learned From My Jobs in Graduate School.

Many thanks to Will for a great job hosting and finding such nifty photos to spruce up this edition. Please visit Wise Bread to see the other great entries! It’s worth it, I promise.

Editors Picks

• Matt Jabs from Debt Free Adventure presents Follow Through on Financial Goals. Have you recently made side money, reduced some expenses, or paid off a debt, yet failed to follow through by properly redistributing your savings accordingly? Check out this article.
• PT Money from Prime Time Money presents What Debt Should You Payoff First When You Get Extra Money. A great post on why you should have a plan even if you don’t have the extra money right now to pay down on your debt. You need a plan for when you do.
• Ray from Financial Highway presents Importance of Money- Means to an End or the End in Itself?. How important is money to you? What would you sacrifice to reach your financial goals? Great discussion to go with this great article.

If you don’t know the meaning of the word “epicurean” and would like some examples, visit Suburban Dollar for some epicurean and pecuniary reading.

Next week’s edition will be hosted at Wise Bread, so get your submissions in fast to be considered for inclusion!

Finance, frugal and green living bloggers, be sure and submit every week. If you would like to host an edition, please visit the hosting guidelines page for information and the submission form.

Even this editor is guilty of financial forgetfulness, such as the time I forgot to pay off my credit card balance before leaving the country and came home to a frustrating interest charge. Or the time I forgot to give my gym my new credit card information and phone number and received a letter from a collection agency.

So don’t worry, we all forget things. I guess that’s what Post-It notes are for. Until then, here are some posts that will help all of us remember to take better care of our finances.

1. I am notorious for opening up bills, setting them on the breakfast table and forgetting about them. Things pile on top of each other, and on more than one occasion, I have forgotten to pay a bill on time. That’s why I love this post from Christian Personal Finance, which offers several different tips for effectively managing and paying your bills.
2. We would all like to be financially independent. Frugal Dad offers a simple formula that can help you determine how much you need to save in order to generate enough income to pay for an item. This can also help you figure out how much it will affect you in the future. He discovered, for example, that in the big picture, his family’s Netflix membership puts them $3,600 further away from financial independence. Yikes!
3. The Happy Rock discusses studies that have found consumers are highly likely to spend more when paying with credit cards than with cash and wonders how much more we are paying for this “credit card premium.” When you are making a purchase, don’t forget that money on a credit card should be treated just like cash.
4. Fiscal Fizzle highlights an important and controversial debate: Is it better to spend more money for insurance, or to save that money instead? I sometimes ponder this question. I spend money on renter’s insurance every year — just in case. Because I’ve never used it, I don’t know if it is really worth it or if it would be better to just save money instead. On the other hand, I’m sure the moment I really need it, I’ll be glad I paid for it.

The rest of the carnival is formatted similarly with personal commentary for each category and included post as well as amusing pictures. Please visit Taking Charge to see the rest of this great carnival!

Editor’s Picks

• VH from Funny about Money shared my favorite article: Work Is a Place…. So many people who work from home struggle with this. I think I’d probably just start saying “Sorry, I’m at work” repeatedly until people STFU. But then, I’m sort of a cranky broad sometimes.
• The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Friends Matter: Friends Accept Us The Way We Are, But…. I have to say, I absolutely agree with this assessment.
• PT Money from Prime Time Money walks you through Opening a Roth IRA for the First Time.
• Peter Anderson from Bible Money Matters lists 7 Things You Can’t Do If You Want To Stay Out Of Debt.

Visit Momma’s Blog to see the rest!

Editor’s Picks

• My Dollar Plan presents 10 Financial Tips for New Grads.
• DoughRoller presents Say Goodbye to Cable and Hello to Free Digital TV!.
• Bargaineering presents Making Your Own Dog Food.

Visit Pecuniarities for more great reads!

Editor’s Picks

• J. Money from Budgets are Sexy presents To combine, or not to combine finances? How the married do it.  J’s 30 comments shows he touched a nerve with people (and the fact it is the same setup that I have makes it all the better).  This article will be a good read in the years to come.
• Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents 27 Last Minute Consideration Before Moving Across The World.  His list, and tons of comments thereafter – will be useful for anyone looking to move across the world regardless of the year.
• Peter from Bible Money Matters presents A Bad Plan Is Better Than No Plan At All.  Peter lies out simple for us – “a failure to plan is a plan to fail.”
• PT Money from Prime Time Money presents 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.  Seriously, who couldn’t use 52 extra ways!

Visit My Journey to Millions for the rest!

Editor’s Picks

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made Millions… Or Not! Some of these online business ideas made me laugh and laugh.  And they make money!  Amazing.
• Passive Family Income brings us 3 Keys to Creating Passive Income.    I think we all love the idea of passive income, and here are some important keys to get you started.  It’s not easy, but I think we all agree it’s a worthwhile task.
• Kelly from Almost Frugal writes on Drastic Frugality: When There’s More Month than Money.  It’s a scary thought, but it happens to the best of us.  Rather than delve into your savings to make ends meet, try following Kelly’s suggestions.
• Jason from Improve the Quality presents If I had known then what I know now… This is always important information, but I think it’s especially timely right now, with all the recent graduates.  I definitely wish I had started saving earlier.

Visit Counting My Pennies for more great reads!